In the past few years, mobile data traffic has grown. As this trend continues, and WiFi-enabled mobile devices become more abundant and diverse, wireless service providers (WSPs) that operate traditional cellular networks are beginning to realize potential in leveraging WiFi hot-spot services to offload data traffic from 3G/4G cellular networks.
In a typical deployment, a mobile node or station equipped with an IEEE 802.11 interface communicates over the air to an access point (AP), such as a IEEE 802.11 base station that is connected to a wired backbone network. The coverage range of a WiFi AP is relatively small (about 20 meters indoors), and multiple overlapping APs are used to service large areas. As a result, APs are deployed in high density in order to cover large areas with high traffic demand. As deployment density increases, WiFi AP installation and management quickly becomes significant overhead for WSPs.